Strong women helped rookie avoid gang life

Updated 11:23 pm, Friday, July 26, 2013

Free-agent rookie receiver Eric Rogers is a longshot to make the Cowboys, but he has impressed the coaches with his work ethic.

Free-agent rookie receiver Eric Rogers is a longshot to make the Cowboys, but he has impressed the coaches with his work ethic.

Photo: Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News

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Receiver Eric Rogers (14) makes a catch during the afternoon session of the 2013 Dallas Cowboys training camp on Wednesday, July 24, 2013 in Oxnard.

Receiver Eric Rogers (14) makes a catch during the afternoon session of the 2013 Dallas Cowboys training camp on Wednesday, July 24, 2013 in Oxnard.

Photo: Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News

Strong women helped rookie avoid gang life

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OXNARD, Calif. — Undrafted rookie wide receiver Eric Rogers will be forever grateful to Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, and it's not just because they're giving him a chance to play for the team he rooted for as a youngster.

Rogers' paternal grandmother, Doris Tucker, died May 29 at 70 after a long battle with cancer. “Grandma Doris” assisted Rogers' mother, Carrie Barron, in keeping him trouble-free as a youth in a gang-infested neighborhood in Duarte, Calif., near Pasadena.

“I was real close to her,” Rogers said of his grandmother.

Even though Tucker's death happened during organized team activities, the Cowboys allowed Rogers to attend the funeral.

“I was able to say goodbye to her, and I appreciate that a lot,” Rogers said. “Mr. Jones also sent flowers, and my family is very appreciative. Mr. Jones is a class act. He does it better than anyone else.”

As a graduate of Division III Cal Lutheran, Rogers, 22, faces long odds to make the Cowboys.

But long odds have been overcome before by Rogers, whose family, including his father, has gang ties. His father is in prison on drug charges, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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“It's Crips and Bloods,” Cal Lutheran coach Ben McEnroe said of the section of Duarte where Rogers once lived. “It's a tough place. It's nicer than South Central (Los Angeles), but it's a place most of us drive through (on the freeway) and don't get off.”

But thanks to his mother, grandmother and sports, Rogers stayed out of trouble.

“I know him,” Rogers said of his father, “but he's never been a figure in my life. He comes and goes. I learned as I matured not to hold a grudge. My mom is my father figure.”

So instead of succumbing to a gang lifestyle like so many of his peers, Rogers got into sports

“Football was my getaway,” he said. “My mom always told me, 'Be a leader, not a follower. Just because your friends do something, you don't have to.' I took that to heart.”

Other lessons came from his grandmother.

“The best thing I learned from her is no matter what obstacle you face, keep battling,” he said. “She had cancer two or three times, went through chemo, and she was always a fighter, a warrior.”

Even at a young age, Rogers was aware of what his mother and grandmother were doing for him.

“I didn't want to cause my mom anymore stress than she already had,” he said. “When she came home from work, I got my homework done and did whatever chore she asked me to do, just to make her smile.”

It didn't take the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Rogers long to please the Cowboys. On the first day of training camp, he raised eyebrows by reaching back to snag an errant pass on a crossing route.

The gem didn't surprise those who watched Rogers star at Cal Lutheran, where the Cowboys trained for most of the Tom Landry era.

“He's just got a burning desire to go get the football,” McEnroe said. “You put it in the same zip code, he's going to go get it.”

Dallas liked what it saw from Rogers during the offseason.

“He was one of those players that got better before your eyes,” coach Jason Garrett said. “It's really a tribute to the kind of young man he is. He works hard at it. It's important to him. He's a big, long guy. He's got good ball skills. He showed us that in the spring and hopefully he can show that in camp.”

Rogers left Cal Lutheran as the Kingsmen's career leader in scoring and receiving. Despite playing most of last season with a fractured left hand, he snagged a school-record 91 passes for 1,298 yards and a school-record 18 touchdowns.

Sensing Rogers had a chance to play in the NFL, McEnroe encouraged him as a junior to start “treating every rep as if it were an audition.” The advice worked: Scouts from more than 10 teams showed up on his pro day to watch Rogers run a 4.48 in the 40.

Green Bay had Rogers in for a visit, but he chose the Cowboys.

“I always rooted for them,” Rogers said. “They were my team. I was heartbroken last year with the loss to the Ravens.”

Garrett already has dubbed Rogers “the right kind of guy,” the coach's way of saying he plays with “passion, emotion and enthusiasm” and has a great work ethic.

Indeed, while at Cal Lutheran, Rogers had several jobs. On Sundays during the fall, he would do the football team's laundry before working as a cashier in the school cafeteria.

“We don't have a full-time equipment staff there,” McEnroe said, “so we have to supplement with student workers and coaches. Eric would put in five or six hours every Sunday after the game. He was the best player on the field, and then he had to turn around and wash everybody's pants and jerseys and get all the stains out.

“But he never complained. He just puts his head down and goes to work.”

Rogers said his mother, who works with autistic adults, taught him the value of hard work.

“I saw my mom every day get up and go to work and try to provide for the family,” he said.

The first in his family to graduate from college, Rogers left Cal Lutheran with a degree in criminal justice and hopes to go into law enforcement if the NFL doesn't work out.

“His success speaks volumes to the character of his mother and grandmother and who they are as women,” McEnroe said. “He had every opportunity to make bad choices but did the right thing.

“They have a lot to be proud of with the kind of man he turned out to be.”